Minotaurs
“In the Minotaur’s world it is far easier to kill and devour seven virgins year after year, their rattling bones rising at his feet like a sea of cracked ice, than to accept tenderness and return it.”
A bloodthirsty warrior charges a shield wall, horned head lowered as he bellows a contemptuous challenge. Proud raiders gamble aboard their ships, betting rich spoils in elaborate games and dares. A great beast stands tall within the temple of a mighty cult, worship and offerings heaped onto her broad shoulders.
Head of a Demon
Born into the world by forbidden rites that melded powerful horned beasts with the intelligence of civilized species, the race of minotaurs is proud and domineering, assured of their superiority over lesser, merely natural races.
A cult that performs such rituals raises its bestial champion as a caged totem, a monstrous weapon fed on the flesh of blasphemers. Yet minotaurs are seldom content to be merely a tool. Those who escape inevitably forge their own paths, even seek out others of their kind. From such stories are born the founding myths of horned half-beast kingdoms.
Yet minotaurs regard their natural drive as something to be mastered, a hunger that will consume them if they are weak. Only those who shackle their arrogance and ambition with a strict code can truly achieve greatness.
Arrogance and Honor
Minotaurs are blessed with supreme self-confidence, and raised to be deeply competitive. They seldom accept anything but a temporary loss, and even then make excuses.
Minotaur etiquette focuses on postponing or redirecting disputes, and most minotaurs love games, puzzles, and other trials. The imposition of rules is particularly appealing to minotaurs, serving to restrain and channel their temper.
Some bull-nations allow this element to go unspoken, but most outright proclaim that might means right, with open contests a foundation of their society.
Treachery is not necessarily unknown to minotaurs: a strict personal code of honour need not comply with any wider view of morality. Still, cheating or renenging on debts is considered deeply suspicious, a display of poor self-control that speaks ill of the bull's other abilities.
Bestial Urges
Minotaurs vary widely in appearance, incorporating features from a range of horned beasts into a humanoid form. Bovine creatures are by far the most common template, but hooves or feet, the number of fingers, and the presence of a muzzle all depend purely on the bloodline in question.
One common factor is a minotaur's violent temperament. In addition to a strict adherence to honour, each minotaur culture develops communal ways to bleed off this aggression. Berserk performances, passionate festivals, and eve simple pit fights. Others resort to hermitage and ritual, regarding bloodthirst as something to be ruled, not bled off.
Aloof, Not Alone
Minotaurs become adventurers for a variety of reasons, most of which boil down to having something to prove. Questants try to outdo their ancestors, young bulls are bound into unwise oaths, and behooved nobles venture forth to settle bets and dares. Those who break the mould tend to be mercenaries or missionaries, rejecting the brutish honour-code of their home for better or worse.
Firstborn minotaurs raised in the shrines of horned gods have less diverse attitudes. Some are loyal to their home, sent forth as agents of prophecy or revenge. The rest fled from holy captivity, escaping their labyrinth homes in search of something greater.
Minotaur Names
Minotaurs usually name their offspring after themselves, or a great hero in their ancestry, whose code the young minotaur must strive to honour. Clan names work similarly, inherited from whichever horned paragon first forged the bloc.
Minotaurs raised by a cult tend to take its name, or the name of its leader, in place of a family name. Those with an even bigger ego than normal (or less attachment to those who raised them) will take the name of its god, instead.
Male Names: Asterion, Beliminorgath, Cinmac, Dastrun, Edder, Galdar, Hecariverani, Kyris, Tosher, Zurgas
Female Names: Ayasha, Calina, Fliara, Helati, Keeli, Kyri, Mogara, Sekra, Tariki, Telia
Clan Names: Athak, Bregan, Entragath, Kaziganthi, Lagrangli, Mascun, Orilg, Sumarr, Teskos, Zhakan
Art Credit:
Wizards of the Coast
Minotaur Traits
Your minotaur character possesses traits reflecting its bestial power.
Ability Score Increase. Your Strength score increases by 2.
Age. Minotaurs reach adulthood at around the same age as humans, but a mature minotaur shows no sign of aging until the day it drops dead. Due to their unnatural origins, this time may come at age 40 or age 140: each minotaur simply does not know how long it might live.
Alignment. Their brutal physicality and disdain for weakness causes most minotaurs to trend toward evil, while their codes of honour or cult lore dispose them toward law.
Size. Your size is Medium.
Speed. Your base walking speed is 30 feet.
Mighty Horns. You have a pair of powerful horns that you can use as a war pick which you are proficient with. This weapon does not occupy your hands. If you use your horns to shove another creature, you have advantage on the Strength (Athletics) check.
Powerful Build. You count as one size larger when determining your carrying capacity and the weight you can push, drag, or lift.
Rushing Trample. If you take the Dash action on your turn, you can use a bonus action to attempt to shove a creature.
Languages. You can speak, read, and write Common.
Subraces. A minotaur's origins have a great impact on their prowess. Choose one of the following subraces.
Labyrinth Minotaur
Many minotaurs are born from dark rites and animal-cults sponsored by the demon lord Baphomet, whose form they share. Transformed warriors or newborn half-bull children are raised as guards by these bloody cults. Those that escape are often agoraphobic, or deeply mistrust religion.
Ability Score Increase. Your Constitution score increases by 1.
Darkvision. Demon blessings grant you superior vision in dark and dim conditions. You can see in dim light within 60 feet of you as if it were bright light, and in darkness as if it were dim light. You can’t discern color in darkness, only shades of gray.
Labyrinthine Recall. Whenever you make a Wisdom or Intelligence check that requires you to recall a passage you have travelled, you add double your proficiency bonus to the check, instead of your normal proficiency bonus.
Languages. You can speak, read, and write Abyssal.
Reaver Minotaur
These minotaurs formed their own society, escaping from the warpits that birthed them to establish an island haven on the principles of strength and honor. Disputes are settled in bloody combat and public contests, oaths are held inviolate above all, and betrayal is regarded as the darkest of crimes.
Ability Score Increase. Your Intelligence or Wisdom score increases by 1.
Conquerer's Virtue. You gain proficiency in the Athletics skill. You double your proficiency bonus when making a contested Athletics check.
Sea Reaver. You gain proficiency with navigator’s tools and vehicles (water).
Languages. You can speak, read, and write Giant.
Sacred Minotaur
Not all minotaurs are the product of dark, secret cults. Those minotaurs reared by more acceptable faiths will sometimes bear the heads of horned beasts other than bulls, with fur of their god's sacred color. Taught from birth that they are the very image of their god, such minotaurs can be overbearing company.
Ability Score Increase. Your Charisma score increases by 1.
Divine Presence. You gain proficiency in the Intimidation skill.
Sweep Aside. If you take the Attack action on your turn, you can use a bonus action to attempt to shove a creature away from you.
Languages. You can speak, read, and write Celestial.